The End Machine ‘The End Machine’
Album Review By Adam McCann
Frontiers Records/Hard Rock
Dokken ruled the hard rock airwaves of the 80’s with classic albums like ‘Breaking The Chains’, ‘Tooth And Nail’ and ‘Under Lock And Key’, but clashes of egos between George Lynch and Don Dokken would lead the former to continue a pale imitation of their former self, whilst Lynch would jump from project to project. This year however has three-quarters of the classic Dokken line-up reuniting with their brand-new project The End Machine with the band releasing their eponymous debut album.
There is a certain expectation from this album that undoubtedly weighs heavy on George Lynch, Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown; the albums these men created are titans of their field, but are the trio able to recapture that magic 30 years on? Joining forces with Robert Mason, a vocalist known well to George Lynch fans as the man who replaced Oni Logan in Lynch Mob and who stepped up to the plate replacing Jani Lane in Warrant; this man is no slouch when it comes to fronting bands with large expectations. Fortunately, ‘The End Machine’ hits the ground running with a warm, familiar hard rocking vibe that has come to be expected of projects like these. This album is sleek, accessible and above all else very enjoyable with tracks such as ‘Bulletproof’ and ‘Leap Of Faith’ showing that there is still some of the old magic here, whilst ‘Sleeping Voices’ oozes with all the slow burning emotion needed to deliver a song of this nature. However, the issue here is that ‘The End Machine’ sounds a little indistinguishable from other big-name Frontiers Records showcases and whilst ‘The End Machine’ is a lot of fun, it is easy to zone out and forget what is actually playing.
Yet, this rampant pedantism takes away from what ‘The End Machine’ is, and that is a great album of hard rock made by veterans of the field who know how to craft and write a song to sell. It may not measure up to the feats of the past, but who cares? ‘The End Machine’ will provide endless amount of listening for fans of the hard rock genre.
Rating : 80/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
